Evanescent
by Whispers of Redemption
Summary: She woke up in a different world, knowing she didn't belong... and everything went severely downhill from there. Not your typical "girl gets sucked into the game" story. Rating may go up later on.
1. Prologue

I used to think Friday nights were boring.

When you're one of those types without the kind of friends who can go and hang with you in public places and the like, they tend to be. Hell, even when I _did_ have friends like that, it's not like I really did stuff like that with them. They were the type to party, and I was a goody-two-shoes killjoy.

Wait, I still am. A jaded one, in all honesty, but I still am one. Oops.

I'm one of those people who would rather play video games and be on the internet than be in a party where so many things can go wrong. It's not just my friends at those parties, and the others... well, let's just say I'd never leave my drink unattended.

Oh, I guess you want to know who the hell I am. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fiona, and I hope in a few years everyone will knock it off with the "Scotty Doesn't Know" bullshit. Then again, it's better than the living nightmare I recently got out of.

I used to not sound this irritable, either. Chalk it up to the previously mentioned living nightmare.

It all started on one of those Friday nights that I used to think were so damn boring. I was sitting on my bed, being bored out of my mind. While examining my room for something to do, I noticed my Nintendo Wii. A thought came to me: I hadn't finished a few of my games for various systems, but especially the Wii and the Gamecube.

I went downstairs (since I hadn't gotten all my games up to my room yet) and pulled out some my games from where they were kept. As I walked back upstairs to my room, I examined my options. That's when I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

I decided to finish my file for Tales of Symphonia, a JRPG I had gotten interested in several years back. Due to a mixture of my inability to keep my focus on anything for very long and my severe lack of commitment to projects, I never finished playing it. I decided it was time I did.

I put the disk into my Nintendo Wii and waited for it to load. Everything was fine to begin with...

When the system started to spark and the Wiimote shocked my hand so badly that I had to drop it, I should have realized, at that very second, that it was all about to go to Hell.

This isn't one of those stories where a girl gets sucked into her video game and becomes a hero. This isn't one of those stories where she starts to believe in herself. It isn't even one of those stories where she comes out more optimistic then when she got in.

I wish it was.

_God_ I wish it was.


	2. Wonderland

It felt like my body was falling downward, and yet I felt so light. Like that scene in Alice in Wonderland, where she falls down the rabbit hole, except I didn't have the poofy dress to make my fall slower-it just was.

Maybe my body wasn't falling at all, but rather sinking. I couldn't find out for sure, either, because no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get my eyes open.

Panic began to rise in my body when I realized that. Panic and fear and _what exactly was happening-_

Then there was nothing but the falling. I couldn't think anymore, I could only continue to fall, fall, fall...

Until the collision. Then all my senses faded _along_ with my thoughts.

* * *

"What...?"

I remember wondering why I was in so much pain, and why my own voice seemed so alien to me. It took me a few moments (or what _felt_ like a few minutes, I really don't know) to open my eyes. I managed to push myself up enough so I could sit. My vision was blurry at first, and I couldn't make anything out clearly. I couldn't even think correctly, because the pain was too much to just block out long enough to think.

My vision eventually cleared, revealing my surroundings. I was in a little village, but not the type I was used to. I knew villages to be small towns, not the one I was obviously in, where everything seemed so...

_Old fashioned._

"Where am I?" I asked myself. After almost being stepped on by someone, I stood up and looked around, trying to figure out just what exactly had happened to me. I held myself, nails digging into the sleeves of my shirt as I tried to remember what I had been doing before waking up in this strange place. After the effort revealed itself to be useless, I began to walk around aimlessly, looking for some sort of hint or clue to tell me where I was.

I found it quicker than I thought I would, in the form of the person who bumped into me. Both of us lost our balance and fell to the ground. I groaned, ready to snap at whoever had walked into me (after waking up in someplace foreign, I wasn't in the best of moods), when the one who did it started to speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! Are you okay? Here, let me help you up!"

I had closed my eyes after falling, feeling dizzy and sick. I opened them slightly to see where the girl's hand was, wondering why that voice sounded familiar. I felt myself being pulled up, but I continued to keep my eyes closed for a few moments before opening them.

Before me was a short, blonde girl with blue eyes, her expression currently one of worry. She was wearing an outfit that was clearly connected to some kind of religion, along with black stockings and boots. It was when she asked if I was all right again that I had the thought that she looked familiar.

Then it all came back to me. Being shocked by the Wiimote, my Wii sparking dangerously, waking up in this village, standing in front of this girl who looked all too much like Colette Brunel from the game I had been attempting to play-

I shook, absolute panic rising in me again, like it had when I had been falling or sinking or whatever I had been doing. I was in the game. I was _in the universe of Tales of Symphonia_ with most likely no way of getting back to where I was supposed to be, in a warm bed with my cats and my plushies, playing the game wanted to play, the game _I did not want to live in_.

The tears ran down my face without me realizing it at first, and then I felt sick from the fear I couldn't help but feel. I ran from the girl, to the nearest bush.

At first, I coughed in between sobs. Then I started heaving. I didn't want this to be true. I didn't. I never wanted to be in a scenario like those self insert fanfictions you're always seeing the summaries for, I didn't want to be a hero, I didn't want to be here at all.

I wasn't even aware of the bile that had been rising within me until I started throwing up violently, the tears still running down my face. I felt a hand rubbing my back, trying to comfort me, but I didn't care. I didn't care. I did not want to be there. I wanted to go home.

The hand continued to rub my back long after I stopped throwing up (and even after I stopped dry heaving.) I sobbed. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, as if it would help my situation. As if it would take me home.

"Are you all right now...?"

I turned around, looking at Colette. So she had been the one comforting me. That was like her, I guess. I nodded, even though it was far from the truth, too weak and upset to speak.

"Do you live around here? I don't think I've seen you before..."

I shook my head.

"Um... well, I don't want to just leave you here..." Colette continued to fret for a bit before smiling. "Oh, I know! Come with me!"

She helped me up again and led me to a schoolhouse I was all too familiar with. I kept my head down, unsure of what I was going to do... what I _could_ do.

Outside of the house was a boy in red, who I knew as Lloyd Irving, the main character and hero of Tales of Symphonia.

"Lloyd, I bumped into this girl and I think she needs help!" the blonde explained to her friend.

_I sure do_, I thought.

The boy looked over to me, then back over to Colette. "What's wrong with her?"

"I asked if she was from here, because I don't recognize her, and she shook her head. She seems really upset and frightened, please help her!"

Lloyd looked back over at me, giving me a sympathetic smile. "What's your name?"

"...Fiona," I responded quietly. "I don't remember my last name, or where I'm from," I added, even though it was an outright lie.

The two looked at each other, as if to decide what to do. I started to panic again, until Lloyd grinned reassuringly. He was just as charming as I found him to be when I was playing the game, but that really didn't make me feel better.

"I'll take her to Dad's!" Lloyd announced. "He might know where she's from. Besides, it'll give her a place to stay."

"Thank you," I replied, forcing myself to smile. "I really appreciate it."

"No problem," the boy replied, holding out his hand. "I'm Lloyd Irving, it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Lloyd," the words sounded wrong coming out of my mouth, but regardless, I shook his hand and hugged him, beginning to cry again. He didn't seem know what to do, and he didn't hug me back, but he let me hold him tightly and sob into his shoulder.

After I calmed down, Lloyd said his goodbyes to Colette before leading me away from her and Iselia itself.

"I don't really live in the village," he admitted. "There are monsters on the path we're going through, but don't worry! If any of them try to mess with us, I'll take care of them! You have my word!"

I nodded, only then noticing that I was scratching the back of my left hand a ridiculous amount. I then realized how much it itched. Looking down to examine it, there was a bright red blemish dead center of it. I didn't remember having that when I arrived, or even before I left, but I had just assumed a bug bit me or something...


End file.
